HAVANA TIMES — In Cuba, there are two ways of doing things: the easy way
and the bureaucratic way. No matter how positive a law might be, the
bureaucrats will always find a way to transform it into an all-consuming
bog, one from which you can only escape with their assistance – which of
course is never disinterested.

Last year the government approved the selling of cars, but it
established three categories of citizens: those who are entitled to
purchase a brand new vehicle, others who can only aim to pick up a used
one from a rental company, and those who will only be able to buy one
from another Cuban individual.

A trumpeter for a salsa group is entitled to buy a new car, but a
campesino who works all day under the blazing tropical sun can only buy
an old car from another Cuban. The same thing happens with doctors,
though in their cases they've earned their dollars by saving lives in
the African bush.

With the network of prohibitions that was established, one didn't have
to be Nostradamus to guess that some bureaucrats were going to engage in
parallel business activities. The government created a captive market
saying it would issue more than 2,000 letters authorizing the purchase
of modern used cars.

The problem arose because they only put up 20 of those vehicles for
purchase weekly. This reminded me of a Cuban psychologist who spoke on
TV about the chaos caused by "the politics of the funnel," referring to
supermarkets where there are 10 checkout registers and a single exit door.

It's not uncommon for there to appear endless lines when the authorities
create a demand that is tens of times greater than the supply. Whoever
has the last turn in the line today will be able to buy their car in the
middle of 2014, provided that no one cuts in front of them over the next
two years.

If that wait was in person — like at the bakery or the corner store — a
line extending seven blocks would be formed. That calculation doesn't
have to be scientifically rigorous; it can be made on the basis of
citizens' average corporal volume, which occupies no more than 50 cm in
any line.

Notwithstanding, you needn't get discouraged, the bureaucrats are there
to pluck you out of the mire. If you want to buy a "demobilized"
rental-company car more quickly, you simply have to reward the employee
who — "at great personal risk" — will facilitate the transaction.

The rates are very flexible, depending on the resources of the "client"
and the price of the car. But in the selling of a car, where I was
present only by chance, I observed that the "thanks" expressed to the
attentive state employee took the form of $500 (USD).

Taking that figure as the average, I multiplied it by the number of cars
sold each week and discovered that these people are pocketing more than
$40,000 (USD) a month, not an insignificant bonus, even if they have to
split it with their bosses and other fellow workers.

The bad part is that this money doesn't come from the pocket of some
millionaire or a few wealthy individuals. It comes from ordinary Cubans
who worked outside the country, away from their families, reducing their
expenses to the bare minimum to save every penny to acquire the
"carrito" of their dreams.

In this case, corruption is facilitated by the government itself in its
attempt to exercise control over citizens around issues that should be
left to each individual. Paradoxically, it's at those moments when
people come up with the best mechanisms to avoid scrutiny.

The reality is that the "state" is an abstraction that is represented in
concrete practice by functionaries of varying ranks, abilities and
ethics. Without a doubt some of them are among the truly virtuous, but I
know others who would sell their grandmother if they could succeed at
getting a good "commission."

It's true that we can't live without them, but we have the possibility
of clipping their wings and limiting their discretion and power to
decide about the lives of average citizens. Of course this can only be
achieved if the state institutions are also willing to relax their
control over society.

For non-Cubans it's almost impossible to understand the
state-citizen-car relationship, but I can sense that it's a very
sensitive issue, so much so that it cost the position of a minister when
he wanted to renew the stock of autos by allowing the importation of
modern cars that would be traded for older ones.

It's a mystery when one contrasts the amplitude of the law allowing the
sale of houses to the prohibitions that remain on cars. Vehicles
continue to be a kind of prize reserved for the select few, and
undoubtedly cars have become the hallmark of the most visible class that
exists in Cuba.

It would be interesting to hear the explanation about what economic,
ideological, political or security problems would result if they
eliminated restrictions on the trade of automobiles and allowed citizens
to buy their carrito without having to be bled dry by the
employee-parasites of the state.
—–

(*) An authorized translation by Havana Times (from the Spanish
original) published by BBC Mundo.

It is no coincidence that the women who struggle are called crazy,
because in reality they must underestimate something,
and this has been thus in the history of humanity,
because it is very difficult for them to recognize that woman also has a
brain…
Elisa Carrió, founder of the Argentine political party
"Affirmation for a Republic of Equality (ARI)", lawyer, university professor

For some it's strange to relate Rosa Parks with the largest island in
the Caribbean. The Rosa Parks Female Movement for Civil Rights was
founded some time ago. Rosa Parks was a reserved and dignified lady who,
in 1954, was arrested in Montgomery, a city in the south of the United
States, for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. This attitude
of hers, so disconcerting in those years, provoked an ongoing popular
movement for civil rights in the United States. Anyone was far from
imagining that her exemplary attitude would arrive in Cuba.

In the insular history there is a Pleiades of talented and ferocious
women: some are most beloved as Mariana Grajales, the mother of the
Maceo generals. We have heroines and famous professionals. Others are
virtually unknown although they gave their all: their hair, jewels,
their life, for the country's liberty; however the concept of passive
resistance was practically unknown in Cuba.

Rosa Parks is at Saint Rita Church as of the first march of the Ladies
in White, known worldwide today. The indomitable spirit of Rosa Parks,
identical, penetrates each gladiolus, each reunion, each step. No money
could pay for the beatings and daily humiliations those simple Cuban
women must bear, and even though the populace claim that one of them
must be an agent of Cuba's National Security, one must also certainly
recognize, her suffering is double. To stand beside convinced beings
must be very hard for a woman, be she mother, wife, sister, and at the
same time a spy. The patriotism with which she could be adorned is of
scarce value now, after all life will send her the bill.

In spite of the departure of the tireless Laura Pollán, first a
grade-school teacher and later a human rights leader, the spirit of Rosa
Parks, which does as it pleases in the rest of the country, now adds an
extraordinary deed to the History of Cuba: the closure, for months, of
the main entrance of the Havana Capitol, the most emblematic edifice of
the Capital to all Cubans, constructed in the 30′s decade of the past
century.

Four women from the Rosa Parks Female Movement for Civil Rights behave,
apparently, like the boys and girls that rode skates and skateboards on
the Capitol steps. With the same self-assurance and ruckus, they
exhibited a bed sheet with signs that said: "Down with the Dictatorship"
and "Long Live Human Rights." Incredible!

These "cuatro gatas", a mere handful of the Parks group, make history in
August of 2011. Little did they care about the month of the "Maleconazo
of 1994″, the so-called "vacations" of many with crumbs and hunger, the
breaks on the beaches devoid of palms and umbrellas. Once ex-president
Fidel Castro labeled "chicas locas" — crazy girls — those young women
who prostitute themselves due to their unending squalor. Now (Thank you,
Rosa!) nobody calls these four women crazy; at most, "dangerous".

The Cuban capitol was partly to blame for all that transpired,
constructed in the image and likeness of the one in Washington. Rosa
Parks, from another dimension, once again felt the same as in the decade
of the fifties. She believed the events were repeating and God only
knows how the beliefs of these Cuban ladies were mixed with those she
always held. The power of convictions and ideas is without discussion,
so for now, the lavish entrance of the Capitol remains closed as of the
end of August 2011.

Within the building, the Statue of the Republic awaits sad and lonely.
Perhaps she believes that now no one remembers her, so famous for her
beauty and size in her time. But no, we must convince her that we
continue loving the Republic of Cuba, and although they insist that it
is not so, the majority of the Cuban people comment between looks of
complicity and kidding around:

There is no joke, nor does there exist, in my belief, any motive for
laughter. The ladies of Rosa Parks have before them a colossal task.
Each Cuban energy, within their means, will have to help them.
Otherwise, some day we shall run into the Statue of the Republic crying
in the Hall of Forgotten Steps. We allow the valuable metal of her body
turn to mud.

The plane touched down in the middle of a Havana night and the tourists
pass through the international airport terminal where dozens of Cubans
offer them taxis, rooms for rent, rum or mulatas. A young man approaches
a short dumpy visitor and, squatting close to his ear, asks "Mister, you
like cigars?" but the answer comes with a strong and well-known accent,
that tells the daring vendor the origin of the traveler. These are the
new Russians, who come not for business but for pleasure, who have
stopped calling each other "comrade" and who now carry their Visas or
Mastercards. In short, they seem less and less like those who for
decades sustained our social experiment.

It has been over fifty years since the Cuban government resumed
diplomatic relations with what was then called the Soviet Union. Those
who lived through that time have told me it wasn't easy to overcome the
accumulated prejudices against the inhabitants of the first socialist
territory in the world, those who were seen by many of my compatriots as
part of an advanced colonization. Life demonstrated that the alarmists
were not entirely wrong.

In the great naivete of our collective childhood there were no
differences between Ukrainians, Turks or Lithuanians, as we believed
them all a single extension ruled from the Kremlin. On the other hand,
the cultural abyss between the homeland of Lenin and our fun-loving
Caribbean island made one scholar admit that "Cuban and Russian hearts
beat on completely different frequencies." However, geopolitics tried to
match us up, without much success. Unlike other European countries,
where Communism rolled in with the tanks commanded by Stalin, in our
case it came with a subsidy, with boats full of oil that called at the
ports of this Island every month.

"The Russians are coming!" cried some, frightened, while others
responded, "Welcome to the Soviets!" Choosing between one word or the
other was, for a long time, more than a linguistic dilemma, it was the
taking of an ideological position. When Cubans of my generation started
to be aware of the world, in the early eighties, no one was tearing
their hair out to choose between these two words that history had forced
to be synonymous.

So we watched Russian films and rode in Soviet Ladas. The downtown
restaurant, Moscow, disappeared in a mysterious and voracious fire, and
to the west of the city they raised a hideous building that would serve
as the headquarters of the USSR embassy, which we jokingly christened
the "control tower" both for it architectural profile as well as its
political evocations. Those were the gray times, when we kids lived
trapped between the teary Eastern European cartoons and the interminable
discourse of the then robust Maximum Leader.

At the beginning of the nineties, with the collapse in those parts, the
official discourse eliminated the references to former mentors. They
erased them from the text books and removed the photos of the leaders in
the fuzzy hats with earmuffs from the Museum of the Revolution, while
national history was rewritten downplaying the Soviet presence in our lives.

The cultural impact of this abrupt departure made itself felt
immediately, especially on movie posters, where the American productions
— and it continues today — pack the theaters and only rarely are
replaced with the old classics distributed in another epic under the
symbol of a soldier and a peasant girl carrying a hammer and sickle.

To the surprise of many, an agreeable surprise of course, television
premiered the series The Master and Margarita based on the unforgettable
satirical novel of the awkward Mikhail Bulgakov. On the national scene
the Bolshoi Ballet — once the flagship of Soviet culture — returned to
perform again and, according to those who attended, defrauded the
demanding Havana public. But nothing is like that era when the
memorandums flew from the palace of colored domes to our sober Council
of State.

After years of little interaction, the visitors from the other side of
the Urals have returned. They are no longer seen in large groups,
dressed in pants always one size too big and white shirts with the
sleeves rolled up to the elbows. They are no longer those foreign
technicians who had the right to buy in stores prohibited to us, and who
sold on the black market the trinkets they bought in those so-called
diplo-shops.

We haven't gone back to calling them "los bolos" — the bowling pins —
that appellation half mocking and half affectionate, honoring the lack
of sophistication of their industrial products, full of rough welds,
divorced from aerodynamics and comfort. Now, the returning comrades of
yesteryear compete in the discos, look like businessmen, and wear French
perfumes.

They are entrepreneurs showing off their computer products, such as the
well known Kaspersky anti-virus, before the astonished eyes of those who
once saw them in their military uniforms. A couple of years ago they
even had an exhibition area at the International Book Fair. Their
shelves were filled with diverse topics, including self-help, with very
few titles of Marxism and Leninism. They walk among us and no one
screams in fear, "The Soviets are back!" Because it's clear to everyone
that they've returned and, swimming at our beaches or drinking a mojito
in some tourist bar, they are — clearly — Russians.

For some months now, they have spread like gun powder throughout the
city: rumors about embezzlement, theft, deviation of resources,
practices of nepotism, etcetera.

Old Havana has generated the most commentaries these days. The director
of Puerto Carenas, the great construction enterprise dealing with the
restoration of all the real estate in the historic center and some other
buildings and monuments outside this area, is presently being
investigated, according to commentary, for crimes against the economy of
the State.

In other news, the La Muralla brewery, the recently appointed
administrator is being detained under investigation after having had a
field planted with marijuana confiscated, in the providence of Pinar del
Rio. This caused the spread of the investigation to encompass the
business he was administrating up to this time, situated at Muralla and
San Ignacio, where other crimes on his behalf were discovered in which
some of his workers were implicated, the latter of whom are also subject
to investigation. Some are being detained and others are in waiting
under house arrest (what we Cubans like to call "the pajama plan" —
though only when it is the 'cushy' version that is applied to high
officials).

The Planetarium at the Plaza Vieja (Old Plaza) has also been
investigated, due to police reports that these facilities were being
offered for functions outside operating hours and administrative
control, and whose dividends were ending up directly in the pockets of
those implicated. There also exist strong rumors of nepotism practices
on behalf of the directorship of Habaguanex. This not taking into
account existing rumors as to the sale of job positions within these
entities, which oscillate between $1,000 CUC and $1,500 CUC, depending
on the type of job.

These rumors give much food for thought. Might it truly be as is being
rumored? If so, how is it possible this has not reached the ears of the
primary directors of said enterprises, when it is already public knowledge?

But sadly, this is not the only place where such criminal activity
occurs. Recently on national television they showed images demonstrating
the goods that were illicitly acquired by the administrator of the jam
factory in the province of Matanzas; he was dismissed upon proof of
illicit enrichment and deviation of resources. The president of the
Havana Yoruba Society (Sociedad Yoruba de la Habana) also fell into
disgrace, as we say here, for utilizing the influences inherent to his
post, in order to secure trips and visas at a price of $3,000 CUC, for
those privileged who were able to pay.

Apparently crime and corruption are spreading like a pandemic. It is
truly very sad, even more so when, for more than 50 years, we have been
hearing talk of the New Man, of revolutionary honor, of our militant
Gentlemen, here on my planet, in order to occupy the post of director or
administrator of an entity, you at least have to be a militant of the
party and, in some cases, a member of State security.

These are the effects, those which regularly come under fire, but what
of the causes? What truly are they?

A totalitarian State that monopolizes the administration of all large
businesses, that pays miserable salaries, that maintains a dual
currency: one with which you are paid for your work and retirement and
another, that you need to acquire however you can, and with which one
acquires at very high prices, all the articles of primary necessity; do
you sincerely believe it can take the luxury of having, in those high
positions of directorship, honest and incorruptible men? Who taught them
to steal?

Everything here exposed are confidentialities and rumors that have
reached me, and that have filtered drop by drop. I don't have all of the
information, that here is almost impossible, but I recall an old saying:
"Cuando el río suena, es porque piedras trae." (Literally: "When the
river sounds, it's because it's carrying rocks." Loosely translated: "If
you hear rumors, there must be some truth to them.")

Cuban church leaders appeal to US over religious freedom
by ASSIST News ServicePosted: Wednesday, May 30, 2012, 11:53 (BST)

A delegation of Cuban church leaders has called on the US government to
add Cuba to its Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) list as one of the
world's worst violators of religious freedom.

The delegation, hosted by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), last
week briefed members of Congress and US government officials in
Washington DC on the sharp rise in religious freedom violations in Cuba.

Former prisoner of conscience and denominational leader Rev Carlos
Lamelas, and his wife Uramis, were among the church leaders who briefed
the Congressional International Religious Freedom Caucus and
Commissioners from the United States Commission for International
Religious Freedom (USCRIF).

CSW said that the group shared personal experiences of state-sponsored
human rights violations and also gave an overview of how the Cuban
government attempts to control and manipulate religious groups.

In a written declaration, Rev Lamelas said, "My case is far from being
an isolated case and it is even less so the worst of the repression
suffered by Christian ministries in Cuba. The difference perhaps was
that I was blessed to have had my case made public in the international
media. For this reason, it is my responsibility to speak out about the
repressive and unscrupulous manipulations of this decaying regime.

"In this declaration, I urge whoever can do so, to judge the Castro
government as violators of the most basic human rights. They extend
their arms, like an octopus, to repress not only Cuban civil society but
also all believers, including church hierarchies, which on occasion work
in complicity with them."

Since the start of this year, CSW has recorded over 40 separate
incidents of religious freedom violations in Cuba compared with 28 in
all of 2011.

Religious freedom violations range from preventing people from attending
church services to the seizure of church land, and official harassment,
beatings and imprisonment of church leaders. Some cases involve large
groups of people.

CSW's Advocacy Director Andrew Johnston said, "While religious freedom
has always been limited in Cuba, the spike in religious freedom
violations this year is deeply troubling. The figures are not exhaustive
but show a clear trend, confirmed by the members of this week's
delegation, which is at odds with the claim of Raul Castro that his
government respects religious freedom.

"We echo Rev Lamelas' call to the international community to recognise
the Cuban government's systematic and escalating violations of corporate
and individual religious freedom and urge the US to place Cuba on its
CPC list."

Abrupt Shift from Drought to Flooding in Central Cuba
By Ivet González

HAVANA, May 30, 2012 (IPS) - The sudden shift from drought to heavy
rainfall that caused severe flooding in central Cuba drove home to the
authorities the need to redesign preparedness and prevention plans for
climate-related emergencies.

"These unusually heavy rains in such a short period of time made it
necessary for us to update our plans and modify procedures to adapt to
climate change-related phenomena," said Inés María Chapman, president of
the National Institute of Water Resources (INRH).

The INRH's responsibilities include acting in a timely manner, with
foresight, and the constant monitoring of every dam and reservoir in Cuba.

For example, Chapman described the measures taken to keep the Zaza
reservoir and others in the central province of Sancti Spíritus stable
as "a real-time exercise in how to act in the face of weather events."

During a tour of the Zaza reservoir, the largest man-made reservoir on
the island, the official pointed out that just a few days ago, INRH
experts were discussing the possible need to accelerate the
well-drilling programme in order to keep up rice production.

The problem was the low level of water in the reservoir, because the
forecasts indicated that the drought would continue over the next few
months. But the situation changed abruptly, and in less than 48 hours,
the Zaza reservoir received more than 800 million cubic metres of water.

Official sources say the danger presented by the reservoir has been
documented in the civil defence system's contingency plans since a storm
filled it in an unexpectedly short time in June 1972, while it was still
being built, causing severe cracks.

But never before had the reservoir filled up as quickly as it did from
Wednesday May 23 to Friday May 25. Last week's rains made this the
rainiest month in the history of the region, with 500 mm of accumulated
rainfall – more than 300 percent of the monthly median.

Although May marks the start of the rainy season in Cuba, which runs
through October, this month actually ended with a major rainfall deficit
on a national level, far below the totals registered in the same month
in 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2005 and 2008, according to sources at
the Meteorology Institute's Forecast Centre.

The forecast for this month was for near normal precipitation in all of
the country's regions. And in the case of central Cuba, estimates ranged
from 135 to 265 mm - far below the total accumulated after last week's
heavy rains.

Scientists say the effects of climate change will include a rise in the
intensity and frequency of extreme weather events. The biggest threats
to Caribbean island nations like Cuba are hurricanes, drought, heavy
rainfall and a rise in the sea level.

Timely evacuation

Some 6,000 people were urgently evacuated from areas near the Zaza
reservoir last week due to the need to open the floodgates when the
reservoir's capacity was exceeded.

The local press reported that the bodies of two men who had been
reported missing were found on Saturday May 26: French citizen Alain
Manaud and Silvestre Fortún of Cuba, whose car was swept away when the
Santa Lucía river flooded in the municipality of Cabaiguán.

"A lot more could have happened," Marta Pérez, a homemaker who lives in
the city of Yaguajay in the province of Sancti Spíritus, told IPS by
phone. "In my house, the water rose more than a metre, but that was the
least of our problems. I have family near the Zaza reservoir and I
didn't stop worrying until I knew they were safe."

When she woke up on Thursday May 24, Pérez found that the water was up
to her knees because the Máximo river had flooded its banks.

The flooding occurred less than a week after the "Meteoro" emergency
preparedness and evacuation drills that are organised every year in Cuba
by the civil defence system and other authorities, based on the specific
vulnerabilities faced in each region.

Last week, the civil defence system kicked into action again when rivers
and reservoirs overflowed their banks, flooding sugar cane and other
crops, damaging bridges and railways, and cutting off land
communications between western and eastern Cuba.

Preliminary damage assessment

A preliminary damage assessment presented by the provincial defence
council of Sancti Spíritus includes the collapse of 47 homes and damage
to another 1,156 – at a time when the country is still recovering from
the devastation caused by hurricanes Ike, Gustav and Paloma in 2008.

Added to this is the damage to more than 3,350 hectares of crops and
5,700 urban farming lots, as well as recently planted sugar cane and
1,400 hectares of rice that are in need of draining. Fish farming,
beekeeping and dairy production were also affected.

Although more than 20,000 head of cattle were taken to safe areas, the
preliminary reports indicate that at least 100 died of cold.

In the city of Trinidad, a popular tourist destination, damage was
caused to the channel of the San Juan de Letrán river, causing serious
problems in the water supply system. The authorities said reparations
depend on access to difficult-to-reach areas.

José Ramón Monteagudo, president of the provincial defence council,
called for recovery work to begin, and for vital services like
electricity to be restored. He also issued an alert on hygiene and
sanitation.

"We need to improve the rational use of water to ensure local supplies
and cover the needs of agriculture and industry," said the president of
the INRH, noting that despite the rainfall in the central region,
drought conditions continued to prevail in the rest of the country.

(CBS News) HAVANA -- As Cuba restructures its economy, the limited
private sector is claiming more public space, even making it into the
new edition of the state-owned phone company's Yellow Pages.

It's a sign that private enterprise is here to stay. This phone
directory, for the first time, has 12 pages of listings and
advertisements for non-state businesses: From bed and breakfasts,
restaurants and photo studios, to party planners, electricians and florists.

For $10, small mom & pop companies get a listing with their company
name, address and phone number. But well-established enterprises such as
the "Monte Barreto Bar--Restaurant" paid bigger bucks -- about $1,300 --
and took full page color ads. La Guarida, a private restaurant popular
with tourists, took a half-page ad at a cost of approximately $800. But
there are also large ads for beauty salons and gyms, and photo studios
specializing in weddings and other social events.

Cubans wanting granite stairs, tiles, floors or countertops will focus
in on an ad by Yovany, who offers free delivery.

There's a listing for a pet hotel and three listings for swimming pool
rentals, and even more for those offering rural settings with amenities
for weddings and birthday parties.

In a country where billboard advertising is non-existent, the
possibility of marketing in the Yellow Pages is a boom to Cuba's new
private entrepreneurs. And it also represents revenues for the State.

In the absence of other advertising possibilities some private
restaurants have been sending text messages or e-mails. A fairly new
Indian restaurant, Bollywood, is one of the most persistent text
senders. La Casa, whose owner Alejandro Robaina missed the deadline to
place an ad in the Yellow Pages, sent out an e-mail earlier this week
announcing the return of their former chef after ten years working
cruise ships in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean and touting a newly
designed menu.

But given the generally limited access to the Internet and the low
percentage of cell phone subscribers, most Cubans will, for the time
being, be getting their information on what's on offer from their phone
books, given free to them when they paid their May phone bills.

Most observers agree that, for private businesses, access to the Yellow
Pages is a step forward and they expect that in the future many more
people will chose to advertise.

Mariela Castro's New York presentation draws complaints that the
audience was hand-picked.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

The daughter of Cuban ruler Raúl Castro has told a New York Public
Library audience that her country's electoral system is democratic and
that a government apology for its past persecution of gays "would be an
act of hypocrisy."

Sexologist Mariela Castro's appearance Tuesday at a panel on lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights also drew some complaints
that organizers had cherry-picked the audience to avert hostile
questions or other confrontations.

When one audience member asked whether the communist government needs to
apologize for its persecution of gays in the past 50 years, she
reportedly replied that "to ask for forgiveness now would be an act of
hypocrisy that will not change the past."

What is needed is to "transform" society to avoid future problems,
Castro argued, according to the EFE and AFP news agencies.

She also declared that Cuba's electoral system "is so democratic that no
one wants to talk about it," although she believes that "it could be
even more democratic." The Communist Party is Cuba's lone legal
political organization.

Panel member Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force, said she didn't get much of a reply when she asked
Castro if she could foresee expanding her push for LGBT rights to
"people with different religious or political views."

"What I was struck by, in some ways, because she has had such a
passionate commitment to LGBT issues, it's what many see as an
inconsistency in a human rights framework," Carey told The Miami Herald.

Gay Cuban dissidents accuse Castro, who heads the National Center for
Sex Education in Havana, of helping only those gays who support her
father's government, and attacking the work of others as provocations.

The New York Public Library flatly denied that the organizers of the
event, who work in the library's LGBT Collections department,
hand-picked audience members to ensure a friendly gathering and keep out
Castro critics.

Initially announced as first-come first-served, the event drew so much
interest that organizers decided later to require reservations in order
to avoid having people show up and not be able to get in, the library
argued. The 177 seats available went quickly.

"Unfortunately, our event space holds a finite number of people, and
once registration filled up, the event was closed," Library Director of
Public Relations and Marketing Angela Montefinise wrote in a statement
sent Wednesday to El Nuevo Herald.

"We understand that people are disappointed that they could not attend,
but registration was done on a strictly first-come, first-serviced
basis, and no one was accepted or turned away based on any factor,
including political, personal or social ideologies," she added.

But Geandy Pavón, a Cuban-born New York artist who has been highly
critical of the Cuban government, said he was suspicious that almost
overnight the event was changed from open-door to RSVP and then declared
booked up.

"Without warning, they changed the rules of the game," he told El Nuevo
Herald. "They can control the number of people who enter" for safety and
space reasons, Pavón added, "but what they should not be able to control
is who can enter."

Maria Elena Restoy, a Cuban exile who tried but could not get into
Castro's presentation, said that a man who did attend told her he had
been invited by Casa de las Americas, a New York center that has long
supported the Cuban government.

Other persons in the audience identified themselves as members of the
Solidarity with Cuba Movement, according to journalists there. A crew
from the U.S. government's Radio-TV Marti was not allowed in.

Restoy added that people leaving the event told her there were empty
seats in the audience. AFP reported the audience numbered "more than one
hundred." Library staffers said the venue did have some empty seats,
because some of the people were standing, and others with reservations
did not show up.

Montefinise noted that while some seats were reserved for guests of the
library and the Cuban diplomatic mission to the United Nations, which
helped to facilitate the event, "the majority of seats were for the public."

Mariela Castro is on a lengthy U.S. tour that includes a presentation on
LGBT rights to an academic conference in San Francisco last week, a
visit to the United Nations and a meeting with the Council on Foreign
Relations in New York.

Her visit has been dogged by controversy, including her comment that she
would vote for President Barack Obama if she could, and complaints from
Cuban-American gays and members of the U.S. Congress, that she should
not have been issued a U.S. visa.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Recently, in the face of the decline of "the model," many political
scientists that deal with Cuba have been given the task of preparing
projections for the new Cuba. As should be true, the opinions are
varied, depending on the ideological and political slant of the
speakers. But one thing is clear: the new Cuba will face several
critical issues. Among these are: achieving a peaceful transition,
without winners or losers, avoiding violence; establishing a democratic
system with broad participation of all political and social viewpoints;
creating a new state with all its institutions; and building an
efficient economy.

The demolition of the ruins of the model such as it is, built on the
base of volunteerism, is not a very difficult task, because by now it
has practically been carried out in all material respects. The difficult
task at this point is to make sure that the majority of those who have
been part of it, with varying degrees of commitment, are able to
understand and accept that change is absolutely necessary to insure that
the nation survives. And also, that the victims of the model (here I
include the exiles), marginalized and repressed for years, do not place
revenge or settling accounts as priorities at the negotiating table. A
compact, setting aside special interests before national, is the smart
thing, which does not mean forgetting, or that those responsible for the
national tragedy remain unpunished, but this should be achieved by
public consensus, in the short term, and within laws enacted for that
purpose, without witch hunts and mass purges. All of us, to one degree
or another, for over five decades, have been involved in what has
happened, and we have different degrees of responsibility, if not
material at least moral. What would be impermissible and suicidal would
be a fratricidal fight.

The full participation of every citizen in the political task of the
nation should be a respected and protected right. This will lead to
establishing the freedom to join together and form organizations of
different political and social stripes for developing and proposing
government projects capable of pulling the country out of the economic,
political and social chaos into which the current model has sunk us.
Therefore, the establishment of full democracy is an inevitable foundation.

It is necessary to create a new state. This is probably the most complex
and difficult task. The existing model, with its institutions and
organizations created on the fly, was built by systematically
dismantling the existing democratic state in the Republic, and was
conceived with purely ideological interests for maintaining power at all
costs. For this reason, the Constitution, laws, institutions, and
organizations all settled into the socialist straitjacket, inventing
ponderous control apparatuses and propaganda at all levels, and even
parallel governments within the government, superseding or multiplying
their functions. A completely new, modern, and efficient state is
required, with new laws and institutions, which continues and perfects
what existed before 1959. For this new officials are needed, who are
more professional than political, with a different ethic. This is not
the task of a day or a short time, but must be tackled at an early
stage, otherwise the rest is doomed to failure.

The establishment of a democracy is inextricably linked to the creation
of an efficient economy. We must understand that without democracy there
is no economy, and equally that without the economy there is no
democracy. All current attempts to address these two categories have
failed. A free, competitive economy is only possible in a democratic
regime that respects the rights of all social entities, and where there
are no obstacles to the free development of individual initiative.
Similarly, a free and efficient economy strengthens democracy,
facilitating the exercise and implementation of laws and social programs
that provide real answers to the needs of the population.

The mystery has been solved, the enigma of the fiber optic cable between
Cuba and Venezuela has been cleared up because of an indiscretion. The
Venezuelan Minister of Science and Technology affirmed a few days ago
that it "is absolutely operational," and what it is used for will
depends on the government of Raul Castro. Just when we thought that the
tendon lying in the depths of the sea had been eaten by sharks and
turned into a home for coral, comes a sign that it is working. For now,
it is just about words because there is no evidence that kilobytes are
running through the cable, circulating data. No office has opened
offering a domestic connection to anyone who wants to contract for it,
and the prices of an hour's navigation from a hotel continue to be
prohibitive and abusive. In workplaces and schools the monthly quotas to
peek into cyberspace continue scarce and supervised, while the official
press makes no allusion to an immediate three thousand times increase in
our bandwidth. The cable is, but it doesn't exist; it exists, but not
for us.

Between La Guaira, Venezuela, and Santiago de Cuba runs an umbilical
cord that should turn us into a 21st Century country, remove our
technological and communications handicaps. When it arrived at our
shores in early 2011, not even the most pessimistic calculated that a
year later we would remain in the same poverty of connectivity. There is
not a single valid argument to delay any longer the mass influx of
Cubans on the Web, other than the eternal fear of our authorities before
the free flow of information. Every day that they delay our initiation
as Internauts, they compromise the professional and social capital of
this nation, they condemn us to the caboose of modernity. On the other
hand, so much control only opens the door to a million and one illegal
ways for people to get content from digital sites, blogs and on-line
newspapers. Like the satellite dishes that are a reality which neither
police operations nor threats from the newspaper Granma can eradicate,
something similar will occur with access to the great WorldWideWeb.
Pirate accounts, resold in the black market by State institution network
administrators themselves, are already a preview of this cyber underground.

Amid so many calls for information transparency, it is paradoxical that
one of the most pressing issues in our national life continues to be
steeped in secrecy. Also too painful for the official journalists is
that an official of a foreign government is the only person who has
alluded to the actual state of such an expensive link. But even more sad
is that the Internet is the new battlefield of the Cuban government and
the fiber optic cable is the weapon — selective and hidden — in its
media war.

The centralized and planned economy is closely linked to state
ownership. For a process of economic decentralization to be successful,
there must be a parallel process of decentralizing property.

The Cuban government has undertaken timid reforms with the objective of
restarting the economy without making fundamental transformations. The
lack of integrity, the rent seeking character, and the lack of
transparency are the hallmarks of these timid reforms that are clearly
only in pursuit of a transmutation of power. The facts are a
demonstration that one year after their implementation the impact of
these reforms has been very limited. Land has been delivered to farmers
in usufruct as an emergency measure to end the chronic shortage of
food.[1] The result, however, has not been as expected, among other
reasons because many producers are wary of an offer to work land that
does not belong to them and that can be withdrawn at any time. On the
other hand, for years the Cuban State has preferred to import billions
of dollars worth of agricultural products, and in particular American
products, instead of providing greater incentives and free markets to
domestic producers.

The law governing distribution of land in usufruct allows great
discretion and equally great uncertainty, as we can see reflected in
some of the articles of the governing statute, Decree Law 259 [1]:

ARTICLE 6: The area to be given to each person in usufruct, be it a
natural or legal person, is determined according to the potential labor
force, the resources for production, the type of agricultural production
for which the land will be destined, and the agricultural production
capacity of the soils.

ARTICLE 14: The termination of the usufruct granted to natural persons
should be for the following reasons:
c) for ongoing breach of the production contract, previously determined
by specialists;
f) for acts which would defeat the purpose for which the usufruct was
granted;
h) revocation for reasons of public utility or social interest,
expressly declared by resolution of the Minister of Agriculture or
higher levels of government.

Subsequently, the Council of Ministers also approved the sale of houses
and other measures related to housing properties [2]. These measures
have been well below the actual needs of Cubans because in no case do
they provide the ability to generate new housing stock, which is one of
the most pressing problems facing Cuban society today. Also, they have
recently rented some locations in a very poor state of repair to
microbusinesses.

There are great similarities between the urban and rural scenarios in
our country. Havana is not full of marabou weed, but there are thousands
and thousands of dilapidated properties – many are complete ruins — and
large areas of unoccupied land. The State alleges lack of resources to
undertake restoration and construction of the housing stock and
infrastructure, but these spaces constitute a wasted frozen capital that
should be handed over to Cubans as soon as possible, for its fullest
use. If we add to this the vacant land nationwide, we have a large
number of urban and rural properties waiting to fulfill their social
function.

The process of liberalizing property use and ownership should be
initiated as soon as possible, not only for idle farmland but also for
urban land and properties. It is essential to end the ambiguities with
respect to the character of property, because this alone generates great
inefficiency and corruption; property needs real owners. While the
categories of owners in usufruct and tenancies may exist, there is no
reason why that should be the basis for our economic structure. The
existence of a legal framework that supports private property is a
necessary condition for an economy that offers real opportunities to all
participants.

This article first analyzes the different methods or liberalizing
property ownership that were implemented in other countries, proposes an
auction program that puts frozen resources at the service of Cubans,
which would be extremely helpful right now, discusses the economic
environment that must accompany these transformations, and offers some
conclusions.

Foreign experiences in the liberalization of property ownership and
their possible application in Cuba

A process of liberalization of property ownership undoubtedly touches
highly sensitive fibers of the Cuban nation, inside and outside the
island, and, therefore, facts and circumstances of the past and present
must be carefully analyzed to achieve a broader consensus. Although it
is necessary to undertake a thorough analysis of the issue of property
related to State enterprises, in this paper we focus on addressing the
case of idle lands and ruined properties.

In many countries, in recent decades, there have been processes of
liberalization of property ownership, some with very encouraging
results, while in others corruption, nepotism and patronage
predominated. In the former Soviet Union, the process of liberalizing
property ownership converted many members of the old government elite
and dishonest individuals into new millionaires, creating great
discontent and disillusionment among the population.

It is very important to understand the problems that have appeared in
previous experiences and to evaluate the best options for our case. In
the Eastern European countries, and in China and Vietnam, various
mechanisms were applied; among the most popular were:

1) Restitution or compensation
2) Sale to the public
3) Sale to the employees
4) Sales en masse

As a first step it is essential to create institutions and rules to
govern this complex process. To restart an economy in ruins, like ours,
it is essential to guarantee a system of legitimate ownership. This will
not be possible if a system of restitutions or compensations to the many
owners who lost their properties due to unjust confiscations is not
implemented in advance.

How did the process of claims function in the Eastern European countries?

"In East Germany two million claims were filed, cluttering up the courts
for years and holding up thousands of construction projects and
businesses because of the uncertainty of legal claims. Some restitutions
occurred in the majority of the Central European countries, particularly
of land and real estate, while restitutions for medium and large
businesses were avoided." [3]

In Hungary the law did not offer restitution, and primarily used
compensation through government bonds that could be used to acquire
shares in state enterprises as they were sold. [4]

Poland, for example, preferred compensation over restitution. Poles
living abroad were eligible for restitution or compensation in the form
of state bonds only if they adopted Polish citizenship and returned to
Poland permanently to administer the reclaimed businesses and/or land. [5]

Each country had its own characteristics, and in our case it is very
important to evaluate the great deficit in the housing stock and the
majority of the population's lack of capital to be able to participate
in the purchase process. The issue is not only to liberalize property
ownership, principally ruined and underutilized properties, but that
this process truly yields a clear benefit and grows the economy of the
country.

The experience of other countries tells us that these sales culminate in
a short period, as people realize that this will be the only way to
acquire properties relatively cheaply.

Let's analyze each of these methods of privatization in more detail and
look at how they could operate in the case of Cuba.

1) Restitution or compensation

The issue of restitutions in our country is controversial and
unavoidable. For years there has been great controversy surrounding the
claims and devolutions of the properties to owners whose ownership
predated the year 1959. Gradually, some consensus is appearing, to shed
light on a sensitive and delicate point.

We can separate these claims into two groups. The first group is those
properties currently occupied by families, and the second is those
properties that remain in the hands of the State.

As suggested by Professor Antonio Jorge:

"The right of permanent occupation for urban residential properties
should be recognized in favor of the occupants or current residents.
However, the former owners, as in the cases of other property, should be
compensated" [6].

Teo A. Babun similarly agrees:

"Fortunately, most expatriate groups have recognized that the return of
homes or residential properties is not feasible. The discussion can be
restricted to non-residential properties. Looking beyond returning the
properties, this simply means that any litigation would be limited to
issues concerning the validity of the claims and the value of what was
lost, and the compensation, if appropriate." [7]

The economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe recommends:

"With respect to the return of property to former owners, we believe
that the Cuban reality suggests different methods. First, in the case of
dwellings, we are in favor of the mass granting of property, with all
the responsibilities inherent in this, to those who are either the
current lease holders or the people who enjoy the use of the property
today without paying rent.

"With regards to the former owners, we agree that from the moral point
of view the fairest approach would be to return these properties to
their former owners, but given the time that has passed and the
transformations in these properties, some of which no longer in exist,
the best solution would be to pay these people, which could be done with
bonds that could be used to purchase legal properties." [8]

For his part, the economist Jorge Sanguinetty considers:

"The restoration of property rights in Cuba has two closely related
aspects, restitution or compensation of old properties to their rightful
owners and the creation of new properties. Both parts of the process
represent the two poles of the recreation of the private sector of the
economy, which would include the opening of new businesses and
privatization of the state investments created by the revolutionary
government, which were never private.

"This is a highly complex problem that ideally requires good prior
preparation and a large administrative and executive capacity to permit
rapid resolution of outstanding claims. If this problem is not resolved,
the recovery of the Cuban economy could become significantly delayed
because it would not have created the right environment to attract new
investment to expand the productive capacities of the country and revive
its economy.

"A group of properties that presents a special challenge is that of
urban real estate, especially homes that were used for rental housing or
housing direct for its owners that are now occupied by other families or
individual tenants. It is obvious that the transition government cannot
put all these people in the street at the time when it takes over an
impoverished and indebted economy, and therefore one of the solutions
that could be contemplated to recognize the property rights of prior
owners is to provide instruments of debt, bonds or tax exemption
certificates negotiable in the financial markets." [9]

Compensations is a very useful method through which the government can
make up for the damage to many original owners. Clearly, in our country,
this method cannot be implemented without delays, given the serious
economic constraints in which we live. But as the Cuban economy begins
to open up there will be major opportunities to realize such
compensations. However, there are methods such as exemption from taxes
that could be effective in some cases, particularly where the investor
is a former owner stripped of their property.

2) Sales to the public

Direct selling has two basic objectives. First, to increase State
revenues, which currently are strongly depressed. Second, to immediately
attract investors interested in jump-starting these underutilized
assets, and bringing the know-how to do it.

It's important to appreciate that Cubans living on the Island do not
possess sufficient capital to buy property at current prices. Given that
at the moment when sales begin there will be a lot on offer in an
environment of scarce capital, prices should not reach very high levels,
enabling many citizens to become owners of new spaces.

In this situation it is essential to contemplate the issue of
corruption. In the former socialist block, foreigners and other buyers
with suspect capital, such as corrupt officials, organized crime and new
"men of business," had the largest sums of money to participate in such
sales.

Another important issue is the efficiency of the process, because the
proceeds from the sales should never report more losses than gains to
the government. The valuation agency created by the German government
collected DM 50 billion through sales, and spent no less than DM 243
billion in the privatization process. [3] In that case the sales were
heavily concentrated in businesses in the former East Germany.

3) Sales to employees

The sale of commercial space and services to employees at preferential
prices is an option that is a priori attractive. However, it can create
serious problems of corruption, especially when managers or executives
are associated with some group in power that allowed them to obtain
these personal benefits.

From a political standpoint this variant is popular among the
population. But there are also some disadvantages, as the companies
often have deficient management, given that the new conditions of a
market economy differ radically from those of a centrally planned
economy. The property rights may become diffuse and could be usurped by
the directors.

In some countries, this was an administratively quick method of sale,
but on the other hand the workers and directors blocked the process.

There are different possibilities, like that applied in Russia, where
20% of the shares were given to the directors, 40% to the employees, and
the other 40% sold directly. [3]

4) Sales en masse

This method is implemented through the distribution of bonds or
"vouchers," for free or for a nominal price, which can be exchanged for
shares of the companies or properties sold. This allows rapid sales, not
only of medium but also large-sized businesses, and offers citizens the
possibility to become new owners, which was widely accepted.

This form of release facilitates a major distribution of direct sales.
However, due to the dispersed ownership, obstacles appeared in the
direction and management of the companies.

In countries such as the Czechoslovakia investment funds were created,
which were still closely linked to the State-owned banks making null, to
a large extent, the final result of the process.

Our proposal seeks to make available as soon as possible spaces that
represent frozen capital and that have been reduced, for years, to mere
ruins, tenements full of rubble, or vacant land covered with marabou
weed. These properties should have Cubans as the main beneficiaries,
principally those living on the Island, although clearly they should be
part of the attraction for foreign investors. Their exploitation will
allow many other sectors to receive a strong impetus from the market
that would be generated.

The cornerstone of the proposal is to auction all the vacant lands, as
well as dilapidated or underutilized urban properties. The auction
process can be planned in three consecutive steps:

a) Sale to nationals living in the country

b) Sale to nationals not living in the country

c) Sale to foreigners

Note: This method ends up being a mix of mass and direct sales.

Let's look at some of the practical procedures it will be necessary to
define:

1) Create the appropriate committees, charged with organizing and
executing this auction process.

2) Develop a clear definition of the properties to be auctioned.

3) Prepare a census of all the properties, tenements and land that
may be subject to auction.

4) Publish the properties and lands with their characteristics and
minimum prices.

5) Establish periods for each one of the three stages.

6) Establish a limit, for the number of properties to acquire, and
their dimensions and values.

7) Publicize the date, as well as all the information related to the
auctions. They will be hosted by municipalities and announced a minimum
of 30 days in advance.

8) Offer a special price to all those who now hold lands under usufruct.

9) After the sale a database must be prepared with all the
information regarding the sales and final price at auction. All this
information should appear in physical copies as well as on the Internet.

10) The entities responsible must keep control of all the income
derived from the sales and the use of these funds in their communities.

Once citizens have the title deed of the property in their possession,
they can sell the property acquired if they wish. This will allow them
to obtain some capital immediately, which can be reinvested or used at
their convenience.

Compensation must be established for all those whose were deprived of
their properties unjustly, and the most effective methods for this
process must be considered, assessing the economic conditions of the
country. This compensation, as suggested by some experts, could range
from cash to the granting of bonds and shares.

Environment for the full operation of the process

The creation of an enabling economic environment is a key factor to
ensure that the process of releasing property has the desired effect. A
new system of property ownership does not, in itself, constitute a
guarantee of success for such transformations. Other factors are needed
to guarantee that the market mechanisms function efficiently. To mention
some of them:

1) Legal framework

The first aspect that must be prioritized is the creation of a legal
framework that guarantees full rights of ownership. It should create
mechanisms for the quick transfer of property titles. Another aspect
that should be given special attention is not to allow the process to
become, in one way or another, a piñata used by influential groups, such
as government officials, leaders of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), or
chiefs of the Cuban military apparatus.

Laws must also be established that guarantee a competitive market. It is
important that the new entrepreneurs can fully develop the potential of
the newly acquired properties.

2) Financial market

The creation of a financial market is an essential element for the
development of a modern economy. It is important to create an agency
charged with the sales process that displays each transaction in a
transparent way, as well as the final destination of the funds received
by the government.

It is necessary to begin with the granting of credits to new
microenterprises. State companies should not provide soft credits, which
hinder the growth of the incipient private sector. The use of soft
credits could encourage alarming levels of inefficiency and corruption.

3) Infrastructure

The State must free up the issuance of licenses for manufacturing, and
end its monopoly on the production of construction materials, which
would ensure that the real estate sector would take off. It must end the
monopoly on imports and exports and liberalize these sectors. This would
allow a new market to be supplied with products lacking in the national
market, materials which are indispensable to jump-start construction.

On the other hand, it is important to stress that this entire process
must be undertaken with due respect for the norms of urban planning.

The liberalizing of these resources would be an initial step to begin to
reverse the state of deterioration suffered by an immense number of
buildings throughout the country. There is an urgent need to at least
halt the advanced state of destruction of the national infrastructure.
The resources acquired by the State in this sales process should be used
immediately for this purpose.

4) Transparency

Transparency has become an essential element of contemporary societies.
It is vital that citizens have full knowledge of and participation in a
process of such transcendence as a change in the structure of ownership.
Mechanisms should be created so that citizens have all the data on the
properties and lands sold.

The use of new technologies is a recourse that can play a very important
role in this transparency. Unlike 20 years ago, when there was no
Internet, today it is possible to consult, from a private computer, all
the data pertaining to governments and their institutions; this, without
a doubt, greatly reduces the levels of corruption.

5) Tax system

A modern tax system is an essential element that guarantees not only
that the State can receive the necessary resources to maintain its
social obligations, but also that it will not put the brakes on the
growth of the new entrepreneurial sector.

The taxes must be reasonable and easy to pay, and tax evasion must not
become the norm. An interesting example of a tax system was implemented
in Estonia after its separation from the former Soviet Union, when it
adopted a uniform tax of 26%.

Conclusions

The cornerstone of any reform in our country should be the transition to
a democracy and the reestablishment of all individual rights. The
economic transformations should be directed to stimulate private
initiative. It is essential to prevent small corporate groups from being
able to exercise a monopoly on the Cuban market, which would accentuate
the exhaustion and pessimism within Cuban society, risking a worsening
of the grave social problems already facing us.

Every entrepreneur should be able to use the tools of a free market
economy, otherwise the failure of the reforms is predestined. To think
of a transformation in the style of China, in which political rights are
of no importance, makes no sense in our country. Cuba should not be seen
as a maquiladora – a country of off-shore factories employing low cost
labor.

The economic transformations should be directed to create a new sector
of micro, small, medium and large enterprises. It is unacceptable to
continue to live in conditions or penury and ruin, when the country has
the necessary potential to be a prosperous and thriving nation. The
economy has to be immediately open to the productive sector and to make
this happen the property ownership system needs to be fully implemented.

To ensure a greater distribution of wealth it is essential that Cubans
hold their respective titles, which creates the possibility of granting
credits among other benefits. In parallel, it is necessary to create a
financing system that allows taking advantage of the process of
liberalization. This, by itself, does not guarantee economic growth if
the appropriate economic environment is not developed.

If Cubans do not have the opportunity to acquire these dilapidated
properties, empty tenements and idle lands, we can expect that in a
not-too-distant future they will be negotiated in a non-transparent way
with large businesses without any bidding process. In this case we will
see a vast majority of Cubans playing the role only of spectators, left
completely outside the scheme of property ownership. Experiences
elsewhere show that in these cases the bribery of state officials ends
the legitimate yearnings of the population to possess some capital or
property, to enter the new market reality, and this can lead directly to
a failed transition.

On the other hand, the type of social dynamic that the current
government is generating in the short, medium and long terms should be
looked at with particular concern. The currently authorized forms of
"self-employment" only allow Cubans to participate in marginal
third-world-style activities such as street hawking, food preparation,
kiosks selling schlock goods, and other micro-enterprises. With the
exception of bed-and-breakfasts and small family restaurants – which do
serve tourists, but at the margin – none of these activities link to any
of the profit centers of the economy, nor are they supported by
wholesale markets, and they do not have connections of any kind to
global commerce, all of which remain in the hands of the State and,
significantly, in the hands of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Furthermore, street vending and similar "professions" are an extension
of the existing informal sector – i.e. black market – already
overdeveloped as a survival strategy in our country. It is important to
bet our future on well-developed fully established businesses that can
support an entrepreneurial class and a broad tax base, rather than grow
an army of tax evaders.

Thus, the current track is an extremely negative policy, designed to
keep Cubans permanently at the margins of the country's economy. Studies
in other countries demonstrate the deleterious impacts of this type of
economy.[10]

We should all be very aware that whatever path is followed at the
current moment will generate the economic structure of our economy for
years to come. We have the resources and the human capital to have a
"first-world" economy, why shouldn't we create one?

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Mariela Castro Espin is on a multiday visit to the United States
- Castro is the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro
- She is among several Cuban scholars granted U.S. visas, spawning
controversy

New York (CNN) -- The daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro, widely
seen as a champion of gay rights in Cuba, brought her brand of outspoken
advocacy to a New York audience Tuesday.

Mariela Castro Espin, who is her country's director of the National
Center for Sex Education and is the niece of Fidel Castro, is on a
multiday visit to the United States.

Castro told an audience of about 130 people at the New York Public
Library Tuesday evening that her work with gay rights in Cuba "is a
pretext to fight other forms of discrimination."

"I also have a dream of a Cuba that achieves, in the long run, its full
sovereignty," said Castro. "Within that sovereignty, we have the right
to choose the path to maintain that freedom, and we have chosen through
popular referendum a type of socialism which experiments towards the
search for justice for all."

Last week, Castro kicked off her tour by attending meetings in San
Francisco on issues such as transgender health care, a topic that she
has advocated for in Cuba.

"The current developments in (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender)
rights in Cuba are remarkable given the discrimination suffered by gays,
lesbians and transgender people in Cuba in the 20th century, as well as
comparison with current LGBT movements in the U.S. and abroad," the New
York Public Library said in a statement ahead of Castro's address.

At the start of Fidel Castro's revolution, gays and transsexuals were
locked up or sent to labor camps, while even a decade ago they were
regularly harassed by police.

But Cuba began making sex-change operations available in recent years,
providing the surgery to a handful of individuals. The financing and the
medical specialists, at least in part, come from Belgium, which has a
longstanding partnership with Cuban medicine.

Mariela Castro, who helped launch a nationwide campaign to battle
homophobia in a country often know for it's machismo, is expected to
join Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force, in discussing gay rights and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

She is among several Cuban scholars granted U.S. visas to attend the
events, spawning controversy particularly among Cuban American
hardliners critical of the Castro regime.

Earlier this year, Mariela Castro and others said they hoped a two-day
government meeting in January, which was closed to the press and brought
together 811 delegates to discuss changes to the island's Communist
party, would take up the issue of legalizing same-sex civil unions in Cuba.

President Raul Castro, however, had cautioned against "illusions" and
high hopes over what the party conference would suggest to the country's
parliament.

In New York, lawmakers last year legalized same-sex marriage after Gov.
Andrew Cuomo, a first-term Democrat governor, lobbied opposition and
undecided state senators to secure the lone vote needed for the bill's
passage.

President Barack Obama announced his support of same-sex marriage, a
change in his position, in early May.

The 2011-2012 sugar harvest in Cuba was 16 percent bigger than the year
before, but the results were "modest" and "insufficient" following a
disappointing growing season, government officials said.

Harvest results were analyzed at a meeting of managers in the sector, at
which two of the country's vice presidents, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura
and Marino Murillo, complained about the deficiencies in sugar
production, state television reported.

"We could have produced more sugar and we didn't do it, it escaped us,
we lost it and we could have done more...We have to change, really
change and we have to do things differently from the way they've been
done up to now - we can't keep believing in stories and promises,"
Machado Ventura, the No. 2 man in the Cuban government, told managers of
the sector.

The latest harvest, according to Cuban television, fell short by 68,000
tons of sugar, and though production grew by 16 percent over the
previous year, "these modest results are still insufficient for the
economic progress the country requires."

Marino Murillo, in charge of organizing and activating the plan of
economic adjustments the nation is undertaking, criticized specific
failures like the delay in getting sugar mills up and running despite
the investments allocated for them.

According to a May 18 article in the daily Granma, the official voice of
the ruling Communist Party, the managers of the AZCUBA sugar industry
group expected "a greater surge" this year because conditions were
"ideal" - and yet the harvest failed to produce the volume of sugar to
which the industry had committed itself.

The 2011-2012 harvest has been marked by the restructuring of the sector
following the substitution of the historic Sugar Ministry with the state
business organization AZCUBA, an umbrella organization covering 13
provincial companies plus nine support and services agencies, two
research institutes and a training center.

AZCUBA's mission is to inculcate better management, adopt new
technologies and generate exports to finance its own operations.

According to official projections, the next sugar harvest should
increase by 20 percent over the latest one's disappointing recovery
following the drastic drop in 2010, when Cuba had its worst sugar
harvest in 105 years. EFE

Spain's Repsol oil company announced Tuesday it was "almost certain" to
withdraw from exploration in Cuba, after spending an estimated $150
million on a dry well and seeing far more profitable prospects in other
countries such as Brazil and Angola.

The announcement was a blow to Cuba's hopes to strike it rich quickly,
jump-start its stagnant economy and trim its dependence on Venezuelan
subsidies, although another foreign company is currently drilling a
separate test well and others have options to follow.

"We won't do another well" in Cuba, Repsol Chairman Antonio Brufau said
in presenting the company's 2012-16 business strategy at a news
conference in Madrid on Tuesday. "The well we drilled turned out dry and
it's almost certain that we won't do any more activity there."

Repsol spent about $150 million since 2000 exploring off Cuba's northern
coast near Havana, with one well in 2004 that did not find oil "in
commercial quantities" and one this year that was dry, said Jorge Piñón,
a longtime Cuba oil analyst with the University of Texas.

Its combine with Statoil of Norway and ONGC of India also has an option
to drill a third well later this year but clearly felt its money would
be better spent in other countries with more profitable opportunities,
Piñón told El Nuevo Herald.

"If you had $100 in your pocket, and I offer you Cuba, Brazil or Angola,
which one would you take?" he said. "There are many other places around
the world much more attractive to exploration."

Piñón said the two bad wells are not realistic indications of whether
Cuba in fact has crude deposits off its northern coast. The U.S.
Geological Service has estimated the area has five billion barrels of
crude, while Cuban officials have put the figure at 20 billion barrels.

But Repsol's withdrawal raised the critical question of how offshore
exploration in Cuba can continue when only one platform in the world,
Scarabeo-9, can operate there. The platform was built in Asia with less
than 10 percent of U.S. equipment to sidestep Washington's embargo on
the communist government.

"As someone once said, Cuba's problem is that Scarabeo-9 is the only
shovel with which Cuba can dig for its possible oil treasures," Piñón said.

Repsol confirmed earlier this month that it hit a dry hole with its
first use of the semi-submersible Scarabeo-9 platform. Just days later,
it took two more blows when the Argentine government seized its YPF
branch — and Cuba applauded the nationalization.

Cuba did not receive any of the money spent by Repsol on exploration for
its two wells, other than perhaps some Havana office costs, Piñón noted.
Companies that carry out such explorations bear the costs, in hopes of
making their back if they hit oil and develop production fields.

Scarabeo-9 started drilling a new well about 110 miles to the west of
Repsol's under contract to a combine made up of Petronas of Malaysia and
Gazprom-Neft of Russia. That well is expected to take four to five
months and if it hits oil it could quickly brighten Cuba's oil future.

If not, Piñón added, further exploration in Cuban waters could suffer
some significant delays.

Repsol has an option to use Scarabeo-9 to drill another well after the
Petronas-Gazprom exploration. Its decision to leave Cuba means it will
drop that option, and raises the question of which company would then
lease the platform, at a cost of about $150,000 a day.

There have been unconfirmed reports that Venezuela's PDVSA and Angol of
Angola have options to hire the platform after Repsol to drill in Cuban
waters, Piñón noted. Any other company also can step in, or the
platform's Italian owners could drill in Cuba for themselves.

But a Petronas-Gazprom failure to find oil now could mean a long delay
in future explorations because Scarabeo-9 could be leased to drill in
more profitable areas like Brazil or the Gulf of Mexico, Piñón added.
Brazil's Petrobras oil company surrendered its contract to explore in
Cuba last year after massive reserves were found off its own Atlantic coast.

For now, Cuba will have to continue hoping for an oil strike while
depending on the estimated $3 billion in oil subsidies from leftist
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who suffers from cancer and faces an
election in October.

Venezuela now sends an estimated 110,000 barrels a day to Cuba, in part
for use on the domestic market and in part for refining in the
south-central city of Cienfuegos and later export to several nations in
the Caribbean.

Any delays in finding oil in Cuban waters, however, will likely ease, at
least for a time, fears that a spill could send plumes of crude riding
north on the Gulf current to foul the Florida Straits, the Florida Keys
and the East Coast of the United States.

Repsol's dry well was in water deeper than BP's Deepwater Horizon, the
source of the catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico two years ago.
The well being drilled now has been reported to be in even deeper water.